A wellness strategy can help your company perform better

Commercials say to eat oat bran because it’ll help lower your cholesterol. “But wouldn’t you like to know why?” asks Jennifer Blackwood. “If you knew that soluble fibre in oat bran actually blocks fat getting into your blood, wouldn’t you be a little more excited? And what if you knew that oranges, apples, strawberries, and green beans do the same thing?”

Blackwood is the owner and president of Business Health Matters Inc. She built the Rothesay, N.B.-based venture on one guiding principle: empowering people to choose health. “My strength is the ability to provide people with simple solutions in order to motivate them to improve their health,” she says. “I give them the power of intervention and prevention.”

With more than 33 years of experience as a registered nurse and in occupational health nursing, Blackwood worked for six years as the manager of health and wellness at J.D. Irving Ltd. (JDI) before launching BHM in 2005. While at JDI, her workplace health-and-wellness programs were recognized nationally with an award from the Canadian Health Care’s Who’s Who in Healthcare. “I wanted to take the success we had achieved at JDI and help other companies become healthier,” says Blackwood. Some of her clients include the Saint John police force, Crosby Molasses, Lorneville Mechanical Contractors, Barry Spalding, Bird Construction, and the City of Fredericton. 

Chance for change
With a specialty in occupational health and a passion for health promotion, breaking into other workplaces was Blackwood’s next step. She targeted the region’s largest employers while also educating management about the economic burden of chronic disease. Blackwood implements confidential comprehensive health assessments with employees, including family history, biometric measurements, physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and stress. She also provides health reports and recommendations, counselling, workshops, educational videos, and Q&As through her interactive website, www.businesshealthmatters.com. Clients working with Blackwood have seen 60% to 80% reductions in employee health premiums.

            
                             ^{Jennifer Blackwood}

Health and wellness is critically important because of the high rates of obesity and inactivity, two of the leading risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. Take New Brunswick, for example, where by 2013 chief medical officer of health Dr. Eilish Cleary predicts one in 10 New Brunswickers will be diabetic.

“Forty to 70% of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are preventable,” says Blackwood. “These are health issues that develop gradually over time and are primarily a result of inactivity, poor nutrition, obesity, and smoking. Once you have a chronic illness, it can
be difficult to reverse it. But there is a huge opportunity over that long-term development stage where you can make a difference. Identifying risk factors early can change health outcomes.”

Prevention equals profit
Screening and education are the most powerful opponents to fighting health risk factors. “Most employers think of employee health costs like the phone bill or the electrical bill; it’s just part of doing business,” says Blackwood. “Employees with chronic conditions have greater absenteeism, so it needs to be a priority in order to keep costs down and businesses healthy, productive, and operational.”

The City of Fredericton’s Engineering and Public Works hired Blackwood in 2007 (see "How Fredericton is faring," below). “Employee health is important not only in their personal lives but also to our productivity,” says Murray Jamer, the head of Engineering and Public Works. “We had started a wellness committee [on our own], but we recognized that we weren’t experts in health.”

Many employees were curious but skeptical. “They didn’t want to be taken out of their comfort zone,” says Jamer, “but they did realize it’s important to know their numbers [cholesterol and sugar levels] and improve their health through better eating and exercise.” 

Eye-opening numbers
Steve Totten Jr., a project manager with Bird Construction, thought he was healthy. “I’m young and active in sports, but after meeting with Jennifer [and having blood work done], my numbers [cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI, blood sugar, weight, and waist measurements] demonstrated that I wasn’t as healthy as I thought I was,” he says. “I eat completely differently now, and I have a gym membership. All of my numbers are in a healthy range.”

Totten credits his understanding of the importance of health to Blackwood’s knowledge and encouragement. “I work in an industry where I need to be alert and aware, and I think I work smarter and safer now.” There’s a direct correlation between health and safety, says Blackwood: “When health improves, safety improves.” 

How Fredericton is faring
In 2007 the City of Fredericton hired Business Health Matters (BHM) to improve the health and wellness of its workforce. “Many of our employees had bad eating habits, smoked, and didn’t get enough exercise,” says Murray Jamer, the head of Engineering and Public Works. “They didn’t know the kind of [poor] shape they were in.” With roughly 84% of the workforce participating in BHM’s general health assessment, BHM’s Jennifer Blackwood designed a comprehensive workplace wellness program customized to the employees’ health needs.

Based on BHM’s scientific and evidence-based methodology, the following numbers represent improvements after one year of the program:

40% reduction in the number of smokers

75% reduction in the number of pre-diabetic blood sugars

40% reduction in stress symptoms

50% reduction in poor nutritional practices

100% reduction in high blood pressure

75% improvement in sleep

75% reduction in the frequency of eating fast food

50% improvement in workplace satisfaction